Where to begin on this exquisite masterpiece? I went into this movie knowing that it had already been a big buzzword during Academy Award season and that it ultimately walked away as an award-winner. I also went into knowing that it deals with the themes of love and commitment in unapologetic, confronting ways. Despite having all of this previous knowledge, I was still left with tears streaming down my face as the end credits rolled and I sat there, in the dark, wondering how humanity manages to get through each day in a reality where there can often be so much pain, loss, complexity an disappointment. But I then realised that that was only one half of what the film depicted. The other half illustrated life’s unending potential for forgiveness, reconciliation, cooperation, and a kind of love that is genuinely enduring and unbreakable. The marriage between Nora (Scarlet Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) was unbelievably real. So much so that it sometimes hut to watch. As the viewer, we were forced to follow each of them equally as they navigated a messy divorce, custody of their child and the trauma caused by a love lost. You don’t take sides. There is no good/bad binary. There is no black and white. They are both just human . Which means they are inherently flawed – they scream, they cry, they make bot minor and major mistakes throughout. But each person is imbued with their own form of beauty, grace and dignity. It has been a long time since I saw such realism, to the point that I could see myself and my own struggles reflected painfully on-screen. Painful, yet revealing. And strangely cathartic as I embraced the reassurance that life absolutely is complicated, it doesn’t always go to plan, and love is by no means a straight-shot to eternal bliss. 

Beyond the character development of the two protagonists (supported by impeccable acting from all sides), the entire film is saturated with realism that completely and utterly consumes the viewers. The loud, incomprehensible chatter in public spaces, making it close to impossible to actually determine which piece of dialogue is pertinent to the plot, creates the impression that you are literally walking along a busy New York street alongside Charlie, straining to hear him over the bustling traffic and noisy bystanders. Characters interrupting each other as Nora and Charlie stare painful (and longingly) at each other amidst a crowded space, blunt and unabashedly loud conversations that are just plain gossip shared between co-workers about a disintegrating marriage in front of the very people involved in the drama, and soul-wrenching musical numbers that bore into your soul as you navigate the emotional whirlpool that is divorce, marriage and adulthood. All of these things left me mesmerised, completely absorbed in the world of the film, convinced that I actually was Nora or Charlie and that I was experiencing this tragic series of events myself. We’ve all dealt with heartbreak and there is probably some more heartbreak in the future for many of us. So we know that heartbreak can feel like death. For Nora and Charlie, we watch them undergo a unique form of emotional death – we watch them lose themselves momentarily only to eventually rediscover who they are, and like a phonic rising from the ashes, the fog clears and their lives continue on. Not as planned, but that is life. You can’t always rely on plans. Marriage Story prepares you better than many other films for the obstacles that life can and will throw at you. But it’s not as simple as just letting go of the past. Just as it is for this broken couple, our pasts and histories remain with us, intricately interwoven into our present and out future. That can be painful at times, but it can also be fulfilling and sentimental. Although Nora and Charlie obviously part ways, the film ends with a subtle, implicit declaration of undying love for each there. Obviously it couldn’t be a love shared in a marriage anymore, but it was love nevertheless. After watching this film, instead of dwelling on the sadness evident throughout, I can only think of how the human soul and heart has such an infinite capacity for love. Regardless of the insults hurled at one another, regardless of the money spent on the divorce, regardless of the wedge driven between the two of them from distance and an incompatibility of desires, Nora and Charlie will always hold the other in their heart. Love perseveres, even if it does alter and change with time. I never thought a film about divorce would teach me about the wonders and possibilities of love, but it certainly did. Truly a remarkable film that does not cower from the intricacy and complication of life, instead facing it with such assertion that life has no choice but to reveal its beauty and grace in the face of gloom and despair.